SABRE - (Stable Actor Based Raycasting Engine) - UPDATES!

[lcl]

Hi everybody! :D

I was going to wait until 40 000 topic views, or until SABRE would have hit the first place on the Most Popular Game Demos -section,
but as I tend to be a little impatient, I decided to post this post now.

So, I'm sure at least some of you have been wondering about what the future of SABRE looks like at the moment. I was wondering about the same thing for a long time. But there's no need to wonder anymore. (Wondering is boring ) SABRE has been brought back to life and I'm working on it again! Not that the project would have been totally abandoned at any point, I've always been persistent about finishing this. I was having a long break from this project and didn't know when I'd continue working with SABRE, but now I'm back to work and boy does it feel good!

But anyways, to the actual news about the project.

I've been experimenting with adding textured floor and ceiling to SABRE (yes, I had previously stated that it would be impossible), and found a way to realize them at least on some quality. I still haven't found any magical trick for avoiding the need of drawing the floor and ceiling pixel-by-pixel, but even that can be done with decent speed if multiplying the pixels' size a little. (Yeah, I know, it's always bad when pixels get bigger, but hey, at least there'll now be a floor and a ceiling!)




There's still a lot to work on with the floor and ceiling drawing, and I may have yet to find some ways of making it more efficient. I'll also add floor and ceiling "layers" for the SABRE World Editor, so that you can paint the floor and ceiling textures from overview just like the walls are drawn in the editor (viewtopic.php?f=6&t=12644&p=90376#p90376).

I've also started making the template .ged which will be provided with SABRE for getting quickly into work with the engine without having to configure anything before hitting 'Game Mode'.
The template's beginning to function and it's pretty nice and easily usable so far. The template will allow very easy workflow with the engine. You won't have to worry about the raycasting codes, they'll all be hidden in the Global Code and only accessed with functions like SABRE_DrawScreen(); etc, all of which also will be set up correctly when you start, so you won't have to worry about even that. And when I get SABRE done, I'll release a thorough guide with simple examples of how to customize your game's settings, how to import your own textures and graphics, and how to manage the game project as a whole, it'll all be way easier than you'd think!

Just to demonstrate what the template does for making everything easier for you, here's a picture that tells more than my thousand words

Oh, yeah, the template also tells you which codes you shouldn't touch xD

Well, I guess this is all for now. Thanks again for the huge support you've shown towards this project, without all of you there would be no SABRE!

[MrJolteon]

For lack of any words, here are a bunch of reaction gifs that I deemed sufficient to convey my thoughts on this:

[lcl]

Haha, thanks man, it means a lot to me! (Especially the third picture, because I love HIMYM.. )

[gamemakerdude]

Wow! It was already pretty awesome before, the work you have been doing looks really, really top notch. Can't wait to use this at some point in the future on a project! Thanks for the update on progress, looking forward to seeing more.

[Zivouhr]

Great job Lcl. The ceiling addition will be cool. Look forward to your advancements on turning a 2D game editor into a 3D game along the lines of the first Wolfenstein, Doom, etc.

[NightOfHorror]

A bit late, but WHOOP, great job. Lets have a ceiling party now!

[lcl]

Thanks gamemakerdude, Zivouhr, and NightOfHorror!
It's great to see there's still interest in this project

[lcl]

Double post!

Wohoo, SABRE is now officially the most popular topic of the Game Demos section! (Click here if you don't believe!)

It might well be that none of you understands how much this means to me. It's just that I think it's incredible that something I have done, has gathered this much interest and has gotten in the big league with demos such as the legendary Gelman by pyrometal, Tower Defense by DST and Mario and the Golden Key by Bee-Ant. I still remember looking at those games like: "Wow, it's possible to make something this cool with Game Editor! O.O I want to learn too!"

And now, years later, we're here. Sure there's been some tough times with this project, but I've always received support from you guys, and it has been the main reason for me to keep working on this - the fact that I know people care about this project, and that I know this project is at least somewhat important for Game Editor, both as a community and also as a game making program.

So, I owe this to all of you:

(No ceiling or floor in this screenshot, because I haven't implemented it to the template project yet, and this screenshot is taken from the template project)

Couldn't avoid the temptation of using a Christmas theme

So, thanks to all of you!

With the (long (a whole month for me!)) Christmas holidays ahead I'm pretty sure I can promise you I'll make some decent progress on the holiday!
The time before my holiday starts is pretty busy for me, as for most of us, I guess. But yeah, stay tuned for updates at the end of the year / beginning of the next year!

[bat78]

Double post!

Wohoo, SABRE is now officially the most popular topic of the Game Demos section! (Click here if you don't believe!)

It might well be that none of you understands how much this means to me. It's just that I think it's incredible that something I have done, has gathered this much interest and has gotten in the big league with demos such as the legendary Gelman by pyrometal, Tower Defense by DST and Mario and the Golden Key by Bee-Ant. I still remember looking at those games like: "Wow, it's possible to make something this cool with Game Editor! O.O I want to learn too!"

And now, years later, we're here. Sure there's been some tough times with this project, but I've always received support from you guys, and it has been the main reason for me to keep working on this - the fact that I know people care about this project, and that I know this project is at least somewhat important for Game Editor, both as a community and also as a game making program.

So, I owe this to all of you:

(No ceiling or floor in this screenshot, because I haven't implemented it to the template project yet, and this screenshot is taken from the template project)

Couldn't avoid the temptation of using a Christmas theme

So, thanks to all of you!

With the (long (a whole month for me!)) Christmas holidays ahead I'm pretty sure I can promise you I'll make some decent progress on the holiday!
The time before my holiday starts is pretty busy for me, as for most of us, I guess. But yeah, stay tuned for updates at the end of the year / beginning of the next year!

Get in skype man :pp

[DjVan]

congrats lcl
sabre is just amazing , i remember the first time running the demo and i was astonished
i was like how the heck something like this could be done in game editor while a few draw actor here and there makes the speed 5fps !
no wonder it's 1# demo so congrats again
waiting for updates...

[Zivouhr]

Great to hear you've reached a major goal of yours Lcl. Way to go!
In my mind, your programming skills are very impressive to be able to achieve a 3D maze and simulation in a 2D editor.

[lcl]

congrats lcl
sabre is just amazing , i remember the first time running the demo and i was astonished
i was like how the heck something like this could be done in game editor while a few draw actor here and there makes the speed 5fps !
no wonder it's 1# demo so congrats again
waiting for updates...

Haha, thanks

Great to hear you've reached a major goal of yours Lcl. Way to go!
In my mind, your programming skills are very impressive to be able to achieve a 3D maze and simulation in a 2D editor.

Thank you

For those interested in development progress, here's some news:

I've continued working on the rebooted World Editor project, and things have progressed nicely. The new editor already supports zooming and blocks are being stored to a linked list which then can be converted to a dynamically allocated array for testing the level with the engine. I've also written a simple system to inform the users of any errors, if, for example memory allocation fails, and the same system will be used for notifying users if there's something wrong with their map project in general. The next things on the list of things to do for the editor include implementing a line drawing algorithm, an ellipse drawing algorithm, etc. This time I'll use actual algorithms, so the lines and ellipses made of blocks will look exactly like a 500% zoomed line or ellipse in paint xD The way I used for drawing lines and ellipses in the old version was creative, for sure, but it produced inaccurate results. But as I said, that will not be a problem in the future.

I've also written myself a clear to-do list about SABRE and thanks to that, I'm now very well on track about what needs to be done, and pretty much everything seems clear, so now it's just a matter of coding all the features I'm going to add. I may post the to-do list here too, just to let you see what I'll be working on.

[bat78]

That seems pretty fair LcL,
You can aways ask me if you need any help or something for I am the person that likes to contribute.

An actual algorithm for drawing lines huh? Which one it could be:
- Bresenham's line algorithm (easier, quicker, faster, simpler)
or
- Xiaolin Wu's line algorithm (Better quality, more suitable to graphic manipulation engines)

I have created my own algorithm too called. Al3's line algorithm. I was wondering how to differ it.. Well it combines these both algorithms in order to produce a smooth line with less resources as possible. As a programmer / Not Microsoft-alike / you have to spare the RAM. There are many systems still running with petty amount of RAM.

[lcl]

I'm thinking of using Bresenham's algorithm, since obviously because I'm using the algorithm to place wall blocks to a grid, I can't use anti-aliasing.

I may also try my hand at creating a line algorithm of my own, but probably won't use it, as I'm pretty certain I can't come up with anything that would be more efficient than Bresenham's algorithm. It's just that I want to try to solve the problem on my own, too, just to see if I could do it.

[bat78]

I'm thinking of using Bresenham's algorithm, since obviously because I'm using the algorithm to place wall blocks to a grid, I can't use anti-aliasing.

I may also try my hand at creating a line algorithm of my own, but probably won't use it, as I'm pretty certain I can't come up with anything that would be more efficient than Bresenham's algorithm. It's just that I want to try to solve the problem on my own, too, just to see if I could do it.

Many tried, but then realized that this was a huge waste of time. Like.. why.. why would you do that?
The algorithm invented from that good old man is more then enough, it does what you want and it qualifies.

I need anti-aliasing at leasts. lol. I would use anti-aliasing algorithm when pealing potatoes. You mostly need it there.